Genre/Influences: Rock-goth, dark-rock.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Berlin-based (Germany) formation Vlad In Tears has already been active for numerous years now. They have a serious fan base in their homeland and this year are striking back with their eighth full length album –which is the second one on Echozone.

Content:  The album stands for the uncompromised approach of Vlad In fusing the energy between dark-rock and gothic music. The vocals are moving from German into English and back to German. Driven by solid guitar assaults, which are sometimes leading towards apocalyptic, elevating choruses, the album is progressively evolving towards a second part featuring 7 acoustic tracks. These songs are ‘revisited’ versions of former cuts featuring the Alice In Chains cover “Man In The Box”.

+ + + : First of all this album features great artwork, which is always nice to discover and to have. Next, the album reveals an interesting duality between heavy, powerful new songs and acoustic, reworked older cuts. I like the acoustic version revealing a hidden side from the band, which has something emotional. “How Do You Know”, “You’ll Come Back To Me” and “Entrapped Soul” are my personal favorites. Among the new cuts, you’ll recognize the overwhelming power of this band resulting in a few new attention grabbers.

– – – : Vlad In Tears is the kind of formation, which is ‘big’ in Germany, but less recognized abroad. That’s maybe because the music has something ‘common’ missing that little extra or that little detail making the difference with the mass.

Conclusion: This is an album without real surprise, but the fans are going to like it!

Best songs: “Tonite”, “We Die Together”, “How Do You Know”, “You’ll Come Back To Me”, “Entrapped Soul”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.vladintears.com / www.facebook.com/vladintearsofficial

Label: www.echozone.de / www.facebook.com/EchozoneMusic